. >> joining me now is congressman steve israel of new york. chairman of the democratic national campaign committee. welcome. >> hey, carol. >> you heard your colleague from ohio. he says sometimes negotiations between congress and the white house are "charades" and that members are waiting for signals from the obama administration and people like speaker john boehner and majority leader reid before they go forward. do you see it that way? >> well, look, it's critical that the leaders of both parties and the white house, the house and senate come to an agreement fast. now, we have always said on the democratic side, house democrats have said we want deficit reduction that's big, bold and that is balanced. the president has put forth a variety of ideas and programs. the response consistently from house republicans has been, no, no and no. now they did come up with a proposal finally just two days ago. there are elements in that proposal we should talk about. elements in my view that we shouldn't. the bottom line is this. i'm not so sure that we